Halloween has come and gone, with everyone now focusing on having a fat and happy Thanksgiving.  The holiday season brings more family-friendly movies and the end of the year blockbusters.  

November 4 Doctor Strange (PG-13)

Talented neurosurgeon Doctor Stephen Strange gets into a fateful accident, robbing him of function in his hands.  Traditional medicine fails to help him regain any functional use for his hands, so he turns to nontraditional medicine on a mysterious enclave.  Soon after, he discovers that the place that healed him is the front line of a war between unseen dark forces trying to tear apart the fabric of reality.  Strange has to act as an intermediary between the real world and what lies beyond with his metaphysical abilities.  Is he willing to give up his wealthy status in the real world to become a powerful enchantress in the beyond?

Directed by: Scott Derrickson

Screenwriter: Jon Spaihts, C. Robert Cargill, Scott Derrickson

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams

Genre: Action/ Adventure/ Fantasy/ Sci-Fi

November 11 Arrival (PG-13)

Louise Banks is a linguistics professor that is recruited by the military after a massive, mysterious spaceship touches down in twelve places around the world.  She is appointed the leader of an elite team of investigators in hopes of finding answers.  The team must race against time to find ways to communicate with the alien beings in which the spaceship belongs to in order to prevent nations from waging a global war.  Banks dives headfirst into solving the case, risking the lives of herself, her team, and maybe even mankind.

Directed by: Denis Villeneuve

Screenwriter: Eric Heisserer

Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

Genre: Mystery/ Sci-Fi

November 18 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (PG-13)

The Harry Potter series officially ended in July of 2011, with the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 2 leaving life-long fans wanting more.  J.K Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter novels, heard her fans’ cries and made the choice to produce another Harry Potter Universe movie based off of the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which she wrote in 2001.  

Jump into the wizarding world of 1926, decades before Harry Potter is even born, to meet a whole different generation of witches and wizards.  Newt Scamander is a young wizard just returning to New York from an expedition around the world documenting an extraordinary array of mystical creatures.  Newt didn’t plan to stay in New York for long, but conflict arises when he meets with Jacob, a No-Maj or Muggle (a non-magic person) and discovers that several mystical creatures have gone  missing.  Watch to find out if Newt and Jacob can find out where the creatures have vanished to.

Directed by: David Yates

Screenwriter: J.K. Rowling

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell

Genre: Adventure/ Family/ Fantasy

November 23 (Thanksgiving) Moana (PG)

Moana Waialiki is the only daughter of a chief in a long line of navigators.  She sets out on a journey to save her people by becoming a master wayfinder.  She meets a demigod by the name of Maui, who becomes her guide on her quest.  The duo sail across the ocean on a voyage full of enormous monsters and impossible odds to fulfill the ancient quest of her ancestors.  Monsters aren’t the only thing that Moana discovers on her journey; she also finds her own identity.

Directed by: Ron Clements, John Musker

Screenwriter: John Musker, Ron Clements, Taika Waititi, Jared Busch

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jemaine Clement, Alan Tudyk

Genre: Animation/ Adventure/ Comedy/ Family/ Fantasy/ Musical

Also to be released:

Don’t miss other exciting titles, such as Dreamworks Trolls, a tale of polar opposites Poppy and Branch who embark on a journey that takes them further out in the world than they have ever been before.

Trolls (PG) – November 4

Hacksaw Ridge (R) – November 4

All Eyez on me (R) – November 11

Loving (PG-13) – November 11

Shut in (PG-13) – November 11

Billy Long’s Halftime Walk (R) – November 11

The edge of seventeen November 18

Bleed for this (R) – November 18

Allied – November 23